A tight closeup of Fana Fraser against a brown background and holding her hand lightly over one eye
Student

Dance (MFA)

Fana Fraser is a Caribbean Futurist, interdisciplinary artist, director, educator and creative thinker. A BAM 2022 Jack Nusbaum Artist in Residence, a 2022 Petronio Residency Center RETREAT & RESTORE awardee, a 2021–2022 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow in Dance, a 2021–2022 Performance AIRspace resident at Abrons Arts Center and a 2021 Caribbean/The Future Space resident artist, Fana was also shortlisted for the 2020 BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writers’ Prize. A full spectrum doula in training through a reproductive justice lens, Fana served as rehearsal director for Ailey II from 2016 to 2020 and as co-director and consultant for Pepatián from 2018 to 2021. Fana has taught as a guest artist in dance programs at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Sarah Lawrence College and Adelphi University in New York; University of the Arts; University of Georgia, Athens, and Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina. Fana was commissioned by The Shed to create a new work for the inaugural Open Call Program (which was canceled due to COVID-19). Her performance work has been presented at Brooklyn Museum; ISSUE Project Room; Wassaic Project; Knockdown Center; Gibney; Movement Research at the Judson Church; La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival; BAX; Emerging Artists Theatre’s Best of New Works Series; BAAD!ASS WOMEN Festival; Dixon Place; WestFest; region(es); and the CURRENT SESSIONS; all of which are based in New York City, as well as the and The Dance and Performance Institute, Trinidad and Tobago, and Trinidad Theatre Workshop, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. She was a CUNY Dance Initiative 2017–2018 resident artist and a Movement Research 2017 Artist-in-Residence Van Lier Fellow. She was nominated and selected for MANCC (Maggie Allessee National Center for Choreography) Forward Dialogues 2017, the inaugural choreographic lab for emerging movement-based artists. Fana was a 2016 artist in residence at the Dance and Performance Institute, Trinidad and Tobago, and a resident artist for Dance Your Future 2016, a project partnership between BAAD! and Pepatián. As a dancer, performer and collaborator, she has worked with Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Sidra Bell Dance NY, The Francesca Harper Project, The Metropolitan Opera, Ailey II, Samita Sinha, Raja Feather Kelly, Miriam Simun, Jonathan González, Raymond Pinto, Andrea Miller for Hermès, and with Ryan McNamara at Performa 13, Art Basel Miami, Guggenheim Works and Process, Frieze New York, and ICA Boston. An honors graduate of the Ailey/Fordham BFA Dance program, Fana began her dance training at Caribbean School of Dancing in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on Kaïri. A certified Gyrotonic trainer, she also has extensive practice in Gyrokinesis, yoga, Pilates, Alexander Technique and Somatic Experiencing.

Visit Fana Fraser’s website. 

Learn more about the MFA in Dance.